Words on Paper

I’ve started a new writing/reading blog here.

I just finished The Stand, which means I’ve read over a hundred pages since my last post, which is fast for me.  I’m glad now that I read the long version, because I think it made the ending impact me more, although I think it would be interesting to check out the original and see what the differences were.  I’d also like to check out that mini-series.  Rob Lowe as Nick Andros?  I have to see it.

I can’t believe I’m still reading this book.  I just passed page 1000, which leaves me with about 100 pages to go.  It’s a good book, but it’s not one of my favorites from King.  I would have probably been better off reading the regular version.  The action is great, but it’s quite spread out.  Anyway, I’ve been reading it a lot the last couple of days as the action has picked up, so I should finish it soon.

The First American is a Benjamin Franklin biography. I’m about 150 pages into it, and so far it’s a good read. Most of what I knew about Franklin, other than his kite flying and Poor Richard, was from the revolution. John Adams by David McCullough gave me a negative impression of Franklin, but what I’ve read in this book has given me a lot more respect for the man.

I didn’t know before that Franklin was at times a vegetarian. It’s hard enough being a vegetarian today; it must have been really tough in the 1700’s.

I love that Franklin predicted the death of another almanac writer just to antagonize him. Even after the man didn’t die, Franklin claimed that he had and that others were continuing to write the man’s almanac.

The only complaint I have with the writing is the use of the former and the latter. Every time I come across this expression, I have to go back and reread to remember which part was the former and which was the latter. If you write, please don’t use this expression; its time has passed.

I just finished The Ancestor’s Tale.  It’s by far my favorite Dawkins book because it’s by far the most readable.  Dawkins is most interesting when he’s discussing specific examples, and this book is full of tales about the animals that join us on the backwards pilgrimage to the ancestor of all life on earth.

Near the end, he wrote about the possibility of evolution repeating itself if it began again from the same starting point.  It was interesting to read about different animal features that have evolved independently, such as the eye.  Maybe our first alien visitors will have eyes.

Also, I didn’t realize before that life as we know it couldn’t originate in our current atmosphere because of the oxygen.

If you haven’t read Dawkins before this book is a good place to start.  I wish I had read it before The Blind Watchmaker and The Selfish Gene.  The next Dawkins book I’d like to read is The Extended Phenotype, but it won’t be soon as I have other books to read.

I started reading the Stand last week.  I’m reading the full, uncut version that was released a few years after the original.  It’s about 1100 pages long.  Anyway, so far it’s great, of course.  King’s characterization is so good that even though there are several stories happening at once, all of the stories seem full and the characters’ backgrounds are easy to follow.  I’m going to try to read all of King’s works, although I haven’t put a deadline on it because it’ll be quite a task.  It’ll be fun, though.

Today I learned that starfish don’t have blood; they use pumped sea water instead.  Amazing!  What will they think of next?

Beyond the Aquila Rift by Alastair Reynolds

This story deals with the idea of being so far away from the earth that if you returned, so much time would have passed on earth that everyone you knew would be dead. It also deals with how to break the news to travelers who’ve just arrived in ships that went way off course. As I read it, I tried to imagine what I would do, but it’s of course hard to know what we would really do. I think, if given the choice, I would come back, even if the world had aged hundreds or thousands of years without me. I have to see those flying cars. It’ll be my own private Futurama.

Today I read about the size of testes in animals and how it relates to that animal’s mating habits.  Gorillas, when compared to the size of their bodies, have small testes, while chimpanzees have large testes.  The reason Dawkins gives is that chimpanzees often mate with multiple partners around the same time, so their sperm compete to pass on that chimpanzee’s genes.  Chimpanzees with larger testes produce more sperm, giving them a higher chance of success.  Male gorillas, however, tend to have harems.  Their competition to reproduce is physical, so they need to be big, but they don’t need big testes.  Now, if only Dawkins would explain why tanuki have such large testes.

I’ve always wondered how islands become populated with animals and vegetation, especially those islands that are created by cooled lava. How does an island go from being made of rock to being covered with soil and vegetation? Part of the answer came to me while reading this book today.

I read about the separation of Old World Monkeys and New World Monkeys. I’d never really thought about how monkeys made their way from Africa to South America. Dawkins’ idea is that they crossed from Africa to South America on rafts made of land that broke off from the mainland. The two continents were closer then and the ocean level was lower, which means there could have been islands along the way. Although the odds are low that this would happen, millions of years can turn low odds into good odds. He gave an example of iguanas traveling from one island to another on earth and logs after a hurricane a few years back in the Caribbean. I would love to see a group of monkeys rocking across the Atlantic on a piece of floating earth. Go monkeys, go!